November 30, 2015

Well lets just say about the fastest slowest week of my life..... 

But that is really honestly the mission.. This week lets see since i wrote you all nothing great has really happened other than a killer shopping spree and an almost mental breakdown hahahah... no just kidding. ( i did buy some stuff... hahhaha a speaker and a killer granny jammy set i know you would love it mom.)

first of all shoutouts!!!!!! 

SHOUT OUT to sare.. WHO IS KILLING IT IN CAMBOYA!!!! Im sooo proud of her.. made it out of training and will be getting a new comp allllll khmer. soooo cool.
ANOTHER SHOUT OUT to BIG GREG. HAPPIEST OF HAPPIEST BIRTHDAYS!!! I love you and am so greatful for you and all you have done for me. the example that you have set and for always being worthy of the priesthood. i am soo grateful to have grown up in a home with the priesthood.
. but hahahhah SHOUT OUT to Mike and Cheryl too. I am sooo excited for those missionaries to have mission presidents like you! that is amazing!

ahhhh i am all over the place today
But lets see.... ITS ALMOST THE NAVIDAD!!!!!!!!!! Im sooo excited to talk to you all and really honestly give you the down low of this place there is just not enough words to put it in a letter! but lets see we had divisions this week... soooooo awesome.... and really other than that is was a week of a lot of knocking and a lot of no´s.

I now know what a full week of contacting feels like and for all you missionaries that have been there before. I FEEL YOU. hahahha but chin up the sun is out.. its warm and its almost the navidad so the only thing i can do is look on the bright side. But on the bright side we had 4 new investigators this week! MIRACLES!!!! ahhahaha and 50 asistencias which is a record here in rama 1 heavenly father is slowly but surely doing his work! 

this week i have been studying a lot about joseph smith in JSH. I love how he expresses his experiences. He talks about how really he wasnt perfect and that he was far from it...he had a lot of trials that came his way... a lot of temptation from satan and still he was firm in his faith..

He knew that he had seen a vision and he knew that god knew it and he could no deny it!!!! THAT IS HOW I WANT TO BE!!! Even when the trials come... to never doubt my experiences that i have had... never doubt the spiritual witnesses that i have been given. AFter the vision... heavenly father left joseph feeling like he was on his own.. I love what happened... after years of feeling abandoned by heavenly father... jospeh knew that he was in the wrong and that he needed to repent... so one night is september he prayed... prayed for forgiveness and a knowledge of where he stood with god. This week that is my challenge to all of you. I hope that we can all pray and know where we stand with god... that we are able to feel how much he loves us and that he can bless us with the ability to see how much he is truly in our lives! but jospeh smith afterwards wasnt relieved all all his trials they werent all just taken away after that moment... but he was given a promise..... as long as he did everything that he could in order to build the kingdom of god all would be well... he would have the strength to overcome!!!!! that is the purpose of the atonement!

I know that god loved us enough to give us his son.... seriously can you imagine watching someone you love suffer... especially how our savior suffered????? heavenly father knew it was the only way! I know that he loves us and he is always there even though sometimes we feel abandoned. just like jospeh smith HE WAS ALWAYS THERE! guiding him and giving him the strength to withstand! I know that joseph smith was called to be a prophet and to bring us the fullness of the gospel! I love sharing this message with the people of paraguay!

The mission can often be a time where you wonder... WHERE DO I STAND WITH GOD???? Actually life is that way! but I know that as we have faith in him WE WILL FEEL HIS LOVE!!!!!

I hope you have a great week...

love you tons and KEEP THE FAITH!

xoxoxoxox hermana pitts 

November 23, 2015

while snow is falling near highland utah and you guys are snuggling inside drinking your hot chocolate...There is an small american girl that is a long way from home for the holiday season..... actually all the way down in the heart of south america hashtag paraguay! sun burnt....and bug bitten. but still with the christmas spirit. hahaha

But what is up family? I miss you guys and seriously cant believe that this week is thanksgiving! its soo weird. My mind is telling me its november but i feel like i am getting to the middle of july... THE HEAT. All the kids are out of school now. Its kinda like a mind warp. Telling me that its getting into the holiday season...but really its not. hahah

This week has been crazy. hahaha WE HAD OUR FIRST DIVISIONS!!!!! ahhhh it was crazy. i had my first experience really being the senior companion... Its crazy.. I still have no idea what i am doing as an hermana lider with little but no experience. hahahah but It was a lot of traveling their area being about 2 hours away. We went came back went and the came back.... 4 bus rides.... and lets just say the buses in paraguay are nothing special... Hot and smelly. hahah but igual. I love divisions it really opens my eyesabout really how much i can learn from a missionary that only has a little bit of time. but it did make it a little hard to be in our area... a lot thisweek.which is really hard. 

then we had our zone conference this week.It was soo good. I love hearing from president.HIS COUNCIL IS ALWAYS SOOOOO GOOD! but I one of the lucky ones....(said sarcastically) to give a capacitation in this conferencia.... on just one of my all time favorite themes... OBEDIENCE! hahahahhahah but It actually was awesome because as always the teacher is the one who learns the most.... after about a week of studying I learned a lot.... But before i go off on my obedience rant...hahahhahaha this week was good...I love being obedient.really i think i am one of those weird people that gets satisfaction out of being obedient but knowing that i did everything that heavenly father has asked whether is something as small as waking up at 7 si o si....hahhaha suprising that is really hard for a lot ofmissionaries....to following the promptings of the spririt in a lesson. I want to do everything..... leave it all here! every effort. But yeah I loved something that someone said. Before this life WE ALL WERE OBEDIENT! WE LOVED BEING OBEDIENT! and we chose to follow oursavior we chose to be obedient! and that is what is going to make us most happy because that is what we are created for!!!!! hahahahha LETS BE OBEIDENT!!!!!! read our scriptures go to church say our prayers thelittlethings that is where the happiness willcome! hahahah 

Christmas iscoming and i can hardly believe that thanksgiving is this week..Thank you to everyone andtheir letters I sadly wont be celebrating much ofthe pilgrims and the indians but i will be giving a lot of thanks. 

1. my family really honestly your support means everything and your examples are what keep me going. I loveyou all. 

2. the gospel This is what makes us happy...living the gospel. being obedient and trying to live how heavenly father wants us to. 

3. THIS MISSION. seriosuly thank you to everyone who recommended it...because it is soooo worth it. It isthe best decision i ever made! It is definitely hard..... not going to lie., there are times where i think what the heck did i do.....why am i here. but there is nothing better. 

today we sat on the beach here in paraguay i just thought about how lucky i am to be in a beautiful place with beautiful people and an amazing languaage! I amsoooooooooooooo excited for KATE NEELEMAN!!!!! ahhhhhh soooo amazing girl! you are going to be amazing! xooxoxoxoxoxo and SHOUT OUT TO BIG GREG... IO wont be there to celebrate turkey day with you or your birthday next sunday!!! but Ill eat some cakefory ou still...

I love you all sooomuch! and hope you have a great week. 

xxoxoxoxooxoxox keepthe faith 

hermana pitts 

 Sister Leaders

November 16, 2016

is it sad to be sad that i only have one year left? holy fast..... THIS WEEK WAS CRAZY!!!! sooo to catch you up.... tuesday was our pday and then tuesday night and wednesday we were in consejo! 

wow..... Consejo, its pretty much a big meeting for all the hermana leaders and zone leaders which was really great!  i felt completely out of place... having little casi no experience but overall it was amazing. Once a month they have the leaders come in from all over the mission to posadas and the hermanas get to sleep in the mission home... AND HAVE A NOCHE DE HOGAR WITH PRESIDENT!!!! soooo cool.... So pretty much i loved every second of it... because there were so many of my favorite people that were hermana leaders this transfer. Hermana ehlert, hermana murphy, hermana salcido... and THEN ON TOP OF THAT!!! ALLLLLLL my comps from the mission field were there. Hermana hartley, hermana wilson, and hermana woolf. So it was pretty much bomb. hahahahha but anyways.... After a long day of crossing the border (sounds real posh right) hahahah we had our noche de rama in the capilla. I was exhausted... (shhhhh dont tell anyone but we did stay up late hahahh hashtag slumberparty.) but  thursday little did we know would be a crazy day too. hahah 

Thursday hermana woolf and another hermana from argentina went to posadas and soooooooo I HAD DIVISIONS!!!! woooooo with Hermana Cannon. Wow. if there is anyone in the mission that is just like me it is her. we pretty much spent the entire night talking about our madewell obsession. sooo there is that. But hahahah im so excited because she is at byu! so ill be having friends after the mission woooohooo. but anyways... crazy week because we didnt get into working in our area until saturday. But igual.... sometimes that is the life. but 

this week... being crazy...we didnt have much time with our investigators which makes me really sad. Although we have little investigators... everyday away from them is hard. I love teaching the gospel. I love watching someones reaction when they feel the spirit there is nothing like it. I know that this is where i am supposed to be. 

hermana cannon and i had a heart to heart one of the nights... hahahah about how the mission is hard... and that even though i may not love it 100 percent of the time. That doesnt mean that i dont desire with all my heart to glory in it. and who better knows my desires than my heavenly father. He knows that i want to love every second and when i dont that i am frustrated with my natural self. But hermana cannon told me something really profound that made me think....

do you think the savior loved every second of his suffering?? do you think he enjoyed getting spit upon, and laughed at and bleeding from every poor? But even though he didnt enjoy every second he still did it. he endured... and that is what i am tasting just a teeny tiny bit in my mission. That is how our lives are... we are here to learn how to rely on our savior. That is the purpose of this often difficult earth life. I know that the way to rely on my savior is through this gospel. It is only through the true and living church that he is guiding.... this is the chruch of jesus christ of latter day saints. I love this gospel. and i love you all remember you are never alone! have the best week ever and KEEP THE FAITH!!!

xoxoxox hermana pitts 

November 10, 2015

what happened this week... it flew... AGAIN. hahahhah CHIQUI and no go hugo... CAME TO CHURCH!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...

hahahaha ok... from the beginning. 

Miracles this week! we had lots of contacting this week.... like a lot... and its starting to get really hot here. HOT AND MUGGY. wow... im not sare in cambodia biking through car washes but i do trudge through a bit of mud... and am sweating like crazy! burning those calories hahahhah but yeah...

monday tuesday wednesday were just normal days... we found some nuevos which is such a miracle here! I am soo happy! and they are looking really good. I am hoping that we can continue to work with them and help them progress in the gospel. but friday is when the best thing happened...

WOW. ok so we were walking down the street near the terminal and off of one of the buses was an investigador antiguo that we had dropped like 2 or 3 weeks ago... He was soo excited to see us! ahhhh sooo cool. IT WAS CHIQUI!!!! ahhhhh

sooo backstory... chiqui the hermanas from like 3 transfers ago found him and started teaching him... he really honestly is killer.... but for some reason he just cant come to church (welcome to 99 percent of paraguay. ) anyways... they dropped him and started again...and kept teaching like once a week until i got here... and we finally decided to leave him for good. BUTTTTTTT Wow.... we started talking to him and he was telling us how much he missed us.. and we decided we would go back one more time just to see....

WE WENT BACK. and never eben mentioned church... when all of the sudden he said. yo necesito venir a la capilla..... WHAT THE HECK????????? HE NEVER SAID THAT BEFORE!!!! AND GUESS WHAT?!?!?!??!!? HE CAME!!! sooo many answers tooo sooo many prayers... and then hugo... so hugo was this snake that we started teaching... it was really bad. we only went 1 time and he was really different and i had a really bad feeling soo we didnt return. but he came to churhc. hahahhaha SO NOW THE ELDERS HAVE ANOTHER PROGRESSING INVESTIGATOR!!!! hahahahahah QUE SUERTE! 

hahahahh but it was such a blessing. This week is going to be crazy fast. the reason that i didnt have the chance to write yesterday was because we have our pday today due to CONSEJO! so tonight we are headed to posadas with all the other leaders to stay in the mission home and have a meeting tomorrow! Im really exicted! but seriously we arent going to get back till tomorrow night... but we worked all day yesterday and then had a partial pday today before we cross the border to posadas! but yeah.... the weeks are just flying i cant believe that its already november and double digits in november. Next thing i know we are going to be skyping home for christmas. WHAT THE HECK????? hahahhah but yeah. 

The mission is weird. but so is life. HARD WORK PAYS OFF!!!!! we have been working hard and now the miracles are starting to come! HEavenly father is in our lives!!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhh he is soo good... he is soo o merciful! seriously i love counting my blessings and just seeing that i have so many! hahahah but i hope you all are doing well. i really miss you. I heard about the church news. and really honestly i just want to say that I KNOW it was inspired. THAT THOMAS S MONSON is a prophet. I love this church. and love this gospel. One thing that i have seen while being down here is the countless people that have been upset by something or were offended and let that affect their testimony.... it makes me so sad. because in all reality we all have our problems and the church isnt for people that are perfect. we are all going to church to better ourselves and improve our lives... No one is perfect except our savior and he is truly leading this church through his profet. I love this gospel and am so grateful to have a living profet who can lead and guide us. I know that the book of mormon is true. WITHOUT A DOUBT. and seriously i love having the opprotunity to share my testimony everyday! it is such a blessing and it strengthens it everyday! i love you guys and I hope you have the best week. 

remember to keep the faith... the way to do that is the little things.. Prayer, scriptures, and church, but with a sincere heart! 

xoxoxo hermana pitts 

 Micky D's

 The ruins

 My yellow umbrella

 The zoo and all the monkeys

 Hermana Woolf after her allergic attack

The Elders thought my cinnamon rolls were the bomb!

November 2, 2015

Well im staying in encarn with hermana woolf! Its so crazy next transfer will be right before christmas! i cant even believe that its already november and while you guys are hunkering down for the colder weather... its just getting hotter here. hahahah the summer is coming! but what is new... hahahha 

Im excited to be staying right where i am and keep working here.. me and hermana woolf are starting to get a groove down so it will be nice to stay right where we are! buuuuuutttttt...... there is a twist! we are going to be a set of hermana leaders! sooo that means a crazy transfer with more divisions and changes! but im excited! 

this week... well really it was just another crazy week here in encarn... lets see monday tuesday wednesday we were busy in the capilla because there were missionaries GALORE... hahhaha everyone had to come to encarn to cross and i am sure that it is going to be about the same this week with transfers.. hahah that is one of the interesting things about this area is that everyone comes to encarn.. and needs a place to stay and they come to the capilla in centro.. and Guess who has the keys hahahah but anyways...

TUESDAY!!! a miracle happened. Our investigator mario... was at home WITH HIS WIFE!!!!! ahhhh she was back from asuncion and so when we stopped by we had the chance to talk with her! but anyways it gets better.... we were sitting and chatting with her when she told us that she didnt have a lot of time because her son was coming over... so we asked her if we could do anything for her... if we could pray with her... during this entire little charlita i just kept having this thought... PRIESTHOOD BLESSING... but problem... as an hermana i dont have the priesthood. so anyways i was about to explain that we could come another day and give her a blessing of salud with the elders... when i turned my head and the elders were speed walking past us.. I JUMPED UP and rannnnn to them... hahahah it was such a miracle... heavenly father directing every path...we were in the right place at the right time and so were the elders! anyways they came in and gave her a blessing and i seriously have never felt the spirit sooo strong! I know that the priesthood power is real and that is the same power that christ used when he preformed countless miracles! it can bless lives. 

Anyways wednesday thursday and friday passed with a lot of frustration and a lot of trust.. the mission is weird. sometimes you feel like you have a million things to do and not enough time.. and other days you look at an empty planner at the end of the night and just think... Wow. who can we visit. BUT THIS WEEK WE FOUND 4 NUEVOS!!!! a record here in encarn hahahha not really but i am really excited to see where they go! but yeah... 

Sunday is when it got weird.. hahahhaha hermana woolf... dont tell her mom. but she has a ringworm... hahahahha its kinda crazy. randomly she will have these breakouts of red itchy blotches and she will start swelling up. So anyways... she hasnt had a break out for about a month now and so we were just happily working until sunday at church her hands started swelling up... the next thing we knew her feet seriously looked like a pregnant womens. bright red and really swollen... then her entire body started flaring up... lets just put it as... SHE LOOKED LIKE HITCH. Her poor face is swollen and she could hardly see or walk.. SO we spent sunday night in the pension. It was good because i redid the entire area book. but it made me realize how much i like being outside and working. althought sometimes its just walking from house to house and having people tell you no.... i really like being outside! but wow... what an experience. hahaha the elders were dying when they came to give her a blessing. she doesnt even look like herself. its crazy. 

But today she is still really puffy in her face but her feet are completely fine so we are going to see how she feels tonight! but yeah... that was about my week! 

This week again i have been studying the new testament! SOOO COOL. the life of the savior is so cool. im serious. I LOVE IT. i love that the four gospels are the same story but everyone has a different take on different events.. matthew elaborates on one miracle john on another. its really interesting. but i was reading in acts this morning about the apostles... thinking about how they felt.. their savior had just died and they probably felt alone... they felt like they didnt know what they were doing... and that sometimes their efforts were a little unfocused. sometimes i feel that way as a missionary as a disciple... but christ sent the comforter... he sent them the spirit... and through the spirit they were able to preform miracles. 

THERE ARE MIRACLES IN OUR LIVES. we just have to see them! i love you all and i hope you have the best week.. pray for me.. i need it! hahahahahah but just know that i am always praying for you. 

keep the faith! 

xoxoxxo hermana pitts